Almost four weeks into remote learning, administrators and support staff across Chautauqua County school districts have been steadfast in their commitment to providing students as much social-emotional support as possible.

According to members of the counseling staff at Southwestern Central School, that mostly includes outreach measures similar to those that have been utilized by teachers.

“We’ve been meeting over Zoom with a lot of our students as well as calling home and calling the parents and staying connected as much as possible,” said Liza Babcock, school psychologist for grades 9 through 12. “We’ve been really connected with our students and have been meeting with them regularly as far as dealing with depression and anxiety.”

Counselors in Jamestown Public Schools have also taken to online resources, according to the district’s director of support services, Chad Bongiovanni.

“Some of these resources were sent home with students when we initially closed, but since then, counselors have put social-emotional learning lessons in Google Classroom so that students can access those on their devices at home and stay in touch with their social-emotional learning,” he said, noting that the 17 counselors he oversees have also provided Zoom calls with students in either one-on-one settings or in a group.

“They’re really trying to stay connected to their students and support them during this difficult time,” he added.

Additionally, high school counselors like Chelsey Winchester have noticed that students have been more open about sharing their feelings during this social distancing period.

“We are hearing from them a little bit more now,'” said Winchester, a counselor at Southwestern High School. “They want comfort, reassurance and connection. Students are willing to talk about that and this is hard for students and families. We’re trying to adjust to a new norm.”

“Those students who are struggling, we’re trying to not only touch base with them personally but also get them connected with outside resources,” she said, noting different agencies like The Resource Center.

Still, like others in the school system, counselors have struggled in making a connection to every student.

“Obviously we’re never going to be at 100%, “Bongiovanni said. “I think that the majority of students have been reachable and the ones who have not been, we make different efforts at engaging.”

“That might be a quick home visit, or using a different electronic medium whether it’s a Remind message or something through Facebook — any type of electronic opportunity that we have to try to reach out to them. We look at ways in which we can switch up our strategy so that we can re-engage those students.”

Robin Kayner, who works alongside Winchester as the other counselor at Southwestern High School, also credited her administration in helping to make connections with as many students as possible.

“Our student resource officer has been useful in checking in on our kids who have been not responding just to make sure they are aware of what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said. “He’s been very helpful as well and our admin has been doing a lot of work as we are home remotely.”

One way Southwestern has attempted to reach out to students has been through a mental health survey, Babcock said.

“This gives us a way that we can keep track of their health,” she said. “We’re trying to be as available as possible in reaching out and working with the teachers and seeing who among the students are not responding and who’s doing homework.”

Bongiovanni said that Jamestown’s struggle has been connecting with students at the elementary level. Students at the middle and high school level each have electronic devices with which they are able to check-in with counselors or teachers.

“(The elementary level) is where we make the extra phone call or we make a home visit,” he said. “We work with the principal in conjunction with the counselor, just to try and find what works best for that particular family to keep them connected.”

He added, “Part of this is not just educating the students, it’s educating the parents and families as well … We’re trying to educate so that they know how to keep their children healthy at home, staying productive, staying in a routine, staying physically active, different ways to talk to them about what’s going on and help them cope with the anxiety this may be causing.”

Southwestern Superintendent Maureen Donahue has also assisted in the effort to connect with students.

“Whatever we have to do to get through this, we continue to take a look at, especially our kids who are the most vulnerable,” she said.

Donahue, as well, is concerned about students who might be struggling with this social isolation.

“We think the social isolation of our kids has been an issue and we’re looking to see about virtual class meetings or class movie nights,” she said. “We’re talking about giving the kids something as a semblance of normalcy.”

“It’s a difficult time for everybody at this point in time,” Kayner added. “As we work to get through this year and finish it up, there’s much anxiety and uncertainty.”

A large part of that has been not keeping the cart before the horse, Donahue said.

“One of the things that are critical is not to get too far out ahead of this,” she said, noting an attempt to keep district-wide planning similar to that of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s: in two week increments.

“I think you have to keep alive that little glimmer of hope that as much as I would like to say where we’ll be in two months, if you told kids we’re done right now, it would be difficult to engage them,” she said.

And while Bongiovanni still is hopeful that face-to-face classes will resume, his district has already started planning for the worst-case scenario.

“We don’t know when this is all going to end,” Bongiovanni said. “We hope to be back at some point this school year, but we’re planning for the worst in which case we don’t return for the rest of the year. With that said, we have to be ready to go, assuming that we can return next September.”

That includes scheduling — a large chunk of responsibility for school counselors at this time of year.

“This is particularly important at the high school level because there is a lot riding at the high school level with credits and completed coursework so our counselors at the high school level are making 20 to 30 calls a day to those students to work on their schedules for the following year,” added Bongiovanni.

And though the state released guidelines for graduation requirements amidst the pause of in-person classes, planning for next year has still had its challenges, Kayner said.

“The hard part is that even though we’re starting to think about and plan for this year, getting through this year and the ever-changing dynamics, it’s hard to focus on next year when we haven’t gotten through this year,” she said.

“We have this whole social-emotional piece in that you still have to keep business moving forward,” she added. “Our counselors and psychologists are continuing with meetings and scheduling and we’re continuing with that because we know eventually we’ll be open back up. When they tell us we’re opening back up, we’re going to have very little turnaround time to get ready.”

We already know that there are going to be gaps in learning,” Donahue said. “Already have conversations about that support and what we have in our sheds of tools.”

She added, “We were not meant to be e-learners. Our schools weren’t designed for that. And though in this case, we use the technology and we enhance it, taking things two weeks at a time gives us something to wrap our heads around.”